Belgian Chocolates

Last week I told you how I met Charlie Jones and Jack Canfield at the NSA conference in San Diego.

I also was there to meet other people. Next to working with my two lists (“need to meet” and “would be nice to meet”) I’m always curious who I’m going to meet spontaneously.

For me networking is about listening to other people and looking for ways to help them. And also to be remembered by them. Your network are your ambassadors. The challenge is to do all of this in a very small time frame.

A strategy that works for me pretty well is to bring gifts, especially when I’m in another country. For instance, for the NSA I brought a light version of my network CD “Let’s Connect at an event” containing 8 of the 30 tips of the full CD. And also Belgian Chocolates. I didn’t bring a whole box for every person I met, but I carried one box with me and offered the people I met one chocolate. So this was not a big investment for me.

I’m sure everybody I met at the NSA will remember me !

So this was my strategy for a 7 minute conversation (not necessarily in this order):
1. Listen to the other person and look for ways to help or connect him/her: 6 minutes
2. Offer them a light CD (and tell my Elevator Story when asked): 45 seconds
3. Offer them a Belgian Chocolate (and tell something about Belgium when asked): 15 seconds

My question to you: what can you offer your network without expecting anything in return?